The Extreme Cases Where A Sub-$200 NVIDIA GPU Can Beat A $550+ AMD R9 Fury On Linux

[efikkan]

The reason why Nvidia has been offering great OpenGL support for years is the professional Linux customers which demand stable OpenGL. Gaming has not been a driving force. The Linux catalyst driver(fglrx) started out as a driver for FireGL for the same reason.

So then what about Vulkan. When AMD can't even offer good OpenGL support for all the professional users, how can a nearly bankrupt AMD afford to prioritize Vulkan support which is only going to be used for gaming? Keep in mind that AMD have two Linux drivers to implement this support.

I'm really worried about AMD.

[duby229]

No, I'm not projecting an opinion, I'm tell you a fact: it is hypocritical to say "everything closed source is simply not an option" and then playing a closed-source game without complaint.

So much of this flame-throwing about nvidia's closed drivers really sounds like a desperate attempt to find something that can be used to disqualify.

Like I said that's not my opinion. You can stop projecting yours. For AMD hardware there is a shitty driver and a good driver. nVidia fanboys telling AMD users that they have to use the shitty driver is just plain wrong.

For almost every scenario AMD's OSS drivers are better than Catalyst.

EDIT: AMD's Catalyst drivers are -not- intended for linux gamers. Stop trying to project the idea that is what they are supposed to be used for. They aren't. AMD has invested a whole lot of effort into their OSS strategy for a damn good reason and that is for desktop linux users.

[Luke_Wolf]

There's frequent benchmark articles comparing the radeon driver to catalyst. Hell, he even benchmarks nouveau quite often to keep us up to speed with developments even though the results are the same every time - no clocking support = crappy performance.

I'm sure if Phoronix was some sort of corporate shill for Nvidia then Michael wouldn't need to ask for subscriptions and paypal donations. I, for one, don't feel as though there's a lack of impartiality. I just think Nvidia sends Michael a bunch of cards, so he benchmarks them, I don't think it's any more sinister than that.

Michael may not be a corporate shill, but he writes with a relatively extreme bias, and his posts as a result definitely aren't impartial, and yet even doing so his articles are still less stupid and biased than SJVN's over on Zdnet.

[johnc]

Like I said that's not my opinion. You can stop projecting yours. For AMD hardware there is a shitty driver and a good driver. nVidia fanboys telling AMD users that they have to use the shitty driver is just plain wrong.

For almost every scenario AMD's OSS drivers are better than Catalyst.

EDIT: AMD's Catalyst drivers are -not- intended for linux gamers. Stop trying to project the idea that is what they are supposed to be used for. They aren't. AMD has invested a whole lot of effort into their OSS strategy for a damn good reason and that is for desktop linux users.

You are not very good at reading.

[duby229]

You are not very good at reading.

I read very well, Just because closed source games get released doesn't mean that closed drivers need to be used, especially when the available closed source driver is not a good driver.

[dungeon]

I read very well, Just because closed source games get released doesn't mean that closed drivers need to be used, especially when the available closed source driver is not a good driver.

To me both are fine, well maybe on fglrx i just missing vdpau or on radeon i sometimes miss great performance of fglrx .

I am mostly opensorce driver user, but i can say that Catalyst is also for gaming as with Omega and recent drivers they started making good profiles recently for Witcher2, Tropics, CivBE, Borderlands2, Metro/LL, Half Life 2... for sure it is for gaming too, and as i mentioned earlier there is (a bit hidden) great performance potentional playground with it

Saying that Catalyst is not good driver, well i can't ever say that... maybe just because it is blob but i seen much worse drivers in my life Current Catalyst is a great driver, well if user don't want to roll other software too much

[profoundWHALE]

Overall, aside from the odd rendering with llvmpipe issues, the open source graphics are simply nicer, more fluid. I don't know what they do but when trying to play a game like Garry's Mod, while the Catalyst driver renders everything 'properly', particularly, the higher quality stuff. The OSS driver however, renders it 'properly' in the sense that there's very little stuttering that I've experienced with the Catalyst drivers.

I think that AMD's put their money into Vulkan, only making the Direct3D11 and OpenGL drivers okay/good.

[dungeon]

Overall, aside from the odd rendering with llvmpipe issues, the open source graphics are simply nicer, more fluid. I don't know what they do but when trying to play a game like Garry's Mod, while the Catalyst driver renders everything 'properly', particularly, the higher quality stuff. The OSS driver however, renders it 'properly' in the sense that there's very little stuttering that I've experienced with the Catalyst drivers.

Current Catalyst has 'hl2_linux' profile, which beside Half Life 2 also seems to work for TF2 and CS:GO for example boosting a game framerate by 50% and also remove that stutter

I tested Talos Principle yesterday, it plays better with OSS driver and stutter more with Cat... but once i disable in game mulithreaded rendering and rename game to Borderlands2 to allow in driver threaded render... i can't recognise it anymore it works much better then anything

Yeah Catalyst can be awfull by default, but there is hidden beauty in it

[profoundWHALE]

Current Catalyst has 'hl2_linux' profile, which beside Half Life 2 also seems to work for TF2 and CS:GO for example boosting a game framerate by 50% and also remove that stutter

I tested Talos Principle yesterday, it plays better with OSS driver and stutter more with Cat... but once i disable in game mulithreaded rendering and rename game to Borderlands2 to allow in driver threaded render... i can't recognise it anymore it works much better then anything

Yeah Catalyst can be awfull by default, but there is hidden beauty in it

I'll check it out! Thanks

[dungeon]

Well you have an article here what happens with CS:GO and TF2 with that hl2_linux Catalyst profile... so you might try something like that with other source games:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...rkaround&num=3

Whoever wants to try those unofficial and unsupported renamings, i can also recommend disabling Catalyst AI as if enabled some apps lose 5% perf, not much but that might be interesting point to somebody